With the afternoon temperatures hovering around 40 degrees for Friday afternoon’s field hockey game between Bonny Eagle and Windham, the hot August practices and those balmy early-season games seemed like distant memories.
This was playoff field hockey in Maine, after all. Many players were decked out in full Under Armour beneath their uniforms. Those on the bench huddled under heavy sweatshirts and blankets in an effort to stay warm.
“I thought the cold was going to affect us more, but we got all bundled up and got warmed up fast and stayed warm,” said Bonny Eagle forward Peyton Dostie.
In fact, it took the Scots a mere 82 seconds to get going. Kim Wakefield rattled the cage, assisted by Dostie, with 28:38 left in the first half to give the No. 4 Scots a quick lead over No. 5 Windham and they never looked back, rolling to a 3-0 Western Maine Class A quarterfinal victory in Standish.
Bonny Eagle improved to 11-3-1 and was scheduled to play No. 1 Scarborough (15-0-0) in Wednesday’s semifinal. Windham wrapped up a successful season at 8-5-2.
“I’ve been on varsity since freshman year and we’ve never made it past the first round of the playoffs, so everybody was wicked pumped today to come out and play,” said Dostie, a junior. “We needed to score quick and we did, so then we just tried to play smart.”
Dostie padded the lead with 10:50 left in the first half, finishing a give-and-go play on which she was assisted by Nicole DeMidio. Tori Pease sealed the victory with a hard blast from straight on with 16:18 left in the game.
Rebecca Coney made six saves to earn the shutout for the Scots, who had a slim 6-5 advantage on penalty corners. Kayla Kennedy stopped nine shots in net for Windham.
Windham’s Molly McVetty tried to cut into the Scots lead with 12 minutes to go, as she was in good position on the far post following a penalty corner, but she couldn’t quite get her stick on the ball for the redirection and the ball went wide. With just over five minutes left, Natalie Harkins tried to get the Eagles on the board with a blistering shot, but Coney was there to make the pad save.
It was the sixth straight victory for the Scots, who have outscored opponents 23-4 during their winning streak. The team, which played Windham to a 0-0 deadlock in their early-season meeting, has really started to peak over the last couple weeks.
“We’ve improved a lot,’ said first-year Bonny Eagle coach Caterina Riitano. “We’re starting to move better to the ball. We’re starting to talk more. Just being where we need to be is working out better. We’re staying in our triangles more. We’re using more give and goes. We’re starting to pressure more in the circle. That’s why we’re coming out on top. We’re scoring more because we’re pressuring the ball more.”
Dostie said the Scots also trust in one another more and work better together than they did when the season began. “Trust has a lot to do with it,” she said. “We trust each other a lot more and are working as a team.”
The Scots know they’ll be heavy underdogs against undefeated Scarborough, which beat them 4-1 during the regular season, but they feel like they have the ability to compete with the Red Storm.
“If we go in strong like we have been, I think we’ll be alright,” Dostie said. “Scarborough is a tough team, but I think we’ll have a chance.”
“We have nothing to lose,” Riitano said. “We’re going to go all out and hopefully come out with a win.”
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